DOES DEVELOPMENT DO THE DEED - CLINICAL-EXPERIENCE AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT TOGETHER ACCOUNT FOR SIMILARITIES IN THERAPEUTIC STYLE

Fielder's conclusions from the early 1950s regarding the relationships among theoretical orientation, clinical experience, and the conceptio n of an ideal therapeutic relationship have been followed by mixed res ults. Nevertheless, they have been unwarrantedly generalized to the no tion that all experienced therapists clinically behave in the same man ner. The concept of epistemological development is introduced as a var iable that may bring some clarity to previous results, Data are report ed on the relationships among theoretical orientation, clinical experi ence, epistemological development on the one hand, and therapeutic sty les on the other, for therapists (N = 161) of six distinctive theoreti cal schools (N = 161). Results suggest not only that orientation is fa r more responsible than experience for variation of therapeutic styles , but also that differences between more and less experienced therapis ts only arise when high levels of both experience and epistemological development are present. Results also suggest that a group composed of more experienced and more developed cognitive and psychodynamic thera pists was more homogeneous in therapeutic style than the group compose d of all other therapists of the same orientations.